http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Liaoning , Dalian , Dalian en-us Sun, 19 May 2013 06:14:37 +0000 Sun, 19 May 2013 06:14:37 +0000 We got up early to leave for the airport to meet the others and get our connection to Dalian. Caleb and I grabbed a drink and a Danish and used the hotel wireless to check our emails we are important men afterallWe checked out and took the shuttle to the airport where we met Hongbo and Ing who are Chinese national postgrad students from Durham who will be making sure nothing happens to us We w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-732445.html The crew has finally checked in for the night. Jet lag caught up finally at 8pm which is 7am Houston time. They looked liked they pulled a all nighter. Aunt Amana started talking in a deep slow voice at the table and my mom was nodding off in midsentence. Carolyn hit the sack at 6pm. Uncle Leslie he running on fumes still talking about running the streets we will see.A recap of the day..... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-608662.html I admit itI've been slack. Almost 8 months slack. I apologize to you family members and friends who keep asking me where my blog isI'm sorry Things got pretty crazy. But here's an entry just for you probably my last one from China. 1. CHINA I'll start with the beginning of the year it was absolute chaos. We have a whole new system in place this year we changed from a linear to a semeste http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-589236.html This is my first real post for the first day of my trip. Likely won't have much time in the next while to give any lengthy updates but hope to be able to fire off a quick few as things progress. Tomorrow March 17th I fly from Vancouver to Dalian China with a layover in Beijing. I will arrive Friday evening local time which is convenient because it allows me the weekend to get settled and p http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-586855.html so we arrived in xi'an i gave a gift from my tea girl to her father at the airport. after that we went to HanYangLing Mausoleum it is the only museum where you could go downstairs and stand on glass to see what were buried for Emperor's afterlife. that was the impressive later that day we finished my going to Big Wild Goose Pagoda which is the most famous and popular Buddhist temple in Xi'an. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-544719.html well a few nights ago me and my german girl walked to get dinner. it was a really nice night and we were walking on the beach. then she had to stop by an atm where we saw this woman with her little dog. they were both wearing strips so we had to get a picture of them haha after that we went to youhome to find green friendly product labels. it was hilarious the workers in the store had no ide http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-544505.html so we got to Beijing on a thursday night. headed to the hotel and then went to their buffet for dinner. it was the best buffet i ever remember going to Indian Japanese Chinese and American food. it was delicious i typically am not a buffet person but this one was wicked good.the next day we woke up early and had breakfast. then we headed out to the Forbidden City. that was pretty interesting http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-543202.html so the majority of my xi'an pics are on my dad's laptop so i will post them as soon as i can. the xi'an pics i have in here are of the last day we were there. out hotel room was insanely awesome. it was probably the best hotel i have ever stayed in. on the last day there we went shopping visited a very old mosque and ate delicious food. it was a fantastic tripsince i have been back one of dad' http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-542021.html you get hit by a car that only has 3 wheels you see a donkey with a carriage of trash going the wrong way on the road random people take photos with you all the english you hear is 'hello' andor you visit a nice flower park that even has a local man peeing on the flowers.i love chinaso dad's coworker made us dinner the other night. it was delicious shrimp pork garlic shoots dumpling galor http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-540453.html so the other night i went out partying with some Germans Chinese and Australians. it was a fun time. we got really cheap bottle service and danced. in china you can literally drink and smoke everywhere street bus train taxi bars ect. i love china there was free coat check in every bar and the drinks were insanely cheap. i don't think i will go out partying here again but it was an exper http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-539764.html so yesterday my dad's chinese teacher came over around 1pm so i had to leave the apartment. i walked around the beach and read for a while. the weather was great yesterday it was very peaceful being by the water.after that i picked up one of my tea house girls and we went shopping. the place we went to was called 'victory plaza' and it was an underground marketplace. the lower the level you go http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-539032.html yesterday my driver took me to pick up a few things from the store. then i met with a couple friends for lunch at I 55 cafe. their coffee is to die for and my sandwich was delicious we hung out there talking and smoking for a while. then we headed to a flower shop to pick up flowers for our painting class on friday. the teacher told us to get red flowers. i just couldn't help it when i saw the a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-538726.html i am so full that i probably shouldn't eat for the next weeki pretty much have been trying to relax and learn the area i am living in. so today i went on a long walk. i almost got hit by a car that has 3 wheels. a random local man kept following me saying 'hello... hello...' for about 5 minuets. i pretty much ran away from him after the first couple of minuets.then me and 2 of the tea house girls http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-538337.html Ive been having a great time in China. Mostly Ive been working but Ive seen a few of the sights around Dalian and in Shandong province and Ive eaten lots of great food.The dining halls on campus have an amazing variety of food. One dining hall has about six small restaurants that make food to order. Each specializes in a different type of food all of which are from China and so f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-536845.html Yes I know I don't write frequently enough. And I leave some stories unfinished. It is a combination of lazy procrastination and actually teaching the reason I am here in the first place. I will cover the most recent events first and if energy permits I will try to fill in the blanks.October HolidayIn China there is a national holiday the first week of October each year. In idea of a holid http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-536690.html Winter break has come and gone again. I started getting ancy for my trip right around Christmas when I threw my 2nd annual smashhit brunch attended by approximately 40 of my lovely coworkers. I was cautiously making general plans for my trip I knew I wanted to go to Cambodia and Vietnam but didnt want to cram a lot of physical movement onto my travel platter. I decided to just go to t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-476663.html Our latest trip was only a weekend adventure but it is amazing how much you can fit in to a couple of days. Fairy is the Chinese wife of a B.C. teacher. She runs a small shop with a variety of services travel guide massages trinkets as well as funding several charities in the region. She is quite an amazing woman. We signed up for a trip with her in october which turned out to be much more t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-448919.html Chinese food appallingly familiar to most Americans is a very different beast in its home country. Learning how to order food was always the slowest of my grudgingly accelerating language skills when I was in Beijing mainly because all the restaurants we went to had pictures on the menu. Since I've been back I've been trying to learn the names of some of my favorite common foods. Eggplant here http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-433797.html Life here continues to be actionpacked. My boss Freddy has the energy of a preschooler which might explain why he works in a school he is constantly bouncing around talking at 300 miles an hour calling every 15 minutes to see if I need anything do I want to get breakfast how is my A.C working will I be in school tomorrow am I still alive and able to teach for him. Consequently my work e http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-432609.html These last few days have been actionpacked. They have me jumping right in at the school. This week I have been shadowing teachers in classes taking notes on how to manage a room full of 4yearolds and helping out when necessarypossible. These little Chinese kids are as cute as I remember them. Classes are 90 minutes long with a 10 minute break. The kids seem to be amazingly proficient with th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Dalian/blog-431590.html